Australasian Grebe

All grebes belong to the Podicipedidae family: podex/podicis = anus/vent, and pedis/pes = foot; hence Grebes are ‘bumfoot’ birds. Well, not quite. The description refers to how their feet are set way back on their bodies. This gives grebes the maximum power for swimming and diving – perhaps the ‘outboard motor’ bird would be more apt.

The Australasian Grebe is Tachybaptus novaehollandiae: Tachys = fast, bapto = dip, novaehollandiae = New Holland, the old name for Australia, and so we get ‘the Australian fast dipper’.

Australasian Grebes usually tend to prefer smaller, freshwater bodies such as farm dams, wetlands, sewerage ponds, etc. Their close cousin, the Hoary-headed Grebe (the two are often seen together) seems to opt for more open waters, fresh and saline.

The Australasian Grebe feeds on small fish and crustaceans, water snails and insects. They get their diet by diving to a depth of 2 or 3 metres, or by chasing their prey on the surface. Australasian Grebes are regarded as very poor fliers. If they are disturbed by an intruding photographer, they often dive and resurface several metres away rather than swim or fly to shelter.

It is often reported that Australasian Grebes eat their own feathers, even feeding them to their young. Although not proven, it is thought to be a means of lining their stomachs to prevent sharp bones entering their intestines.

Aussie grebes often build their nests on an island of floating vegetation. The parents are sometimes known to carry their young on their backs – I haven’t lived long enough yet to see this.

And finally, Australasian Grebes have two distinct phases of plumage. All images on this page are of T.novaehollandiae  in the breeding phase. When non-breeding, Australasian Grebes are very similar to their hoary-headed relative.

Olive-backed Oriole

The Olive-backed Oriole inhabits eucalypt woodlands up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia. In this district, the bird is a spring-summer migrant – many Gippsland birdwatchers nominate the call of their first Oriole for the season as the harbinger of spring.

The bird survey team of the Friends of Drouin’s Trees was a little surprised to see and hear an Oriole in Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin recently. We mostly agreed it/they should have headed back north by now. Nice to record it as the surveyors hadn’t ticked one for some time.

The Olive-backed Oriole is principally a fruit-eater but also takes insects from the canopy foliage and bark, particularly of eucalypts.

Other names for the bird include: Green Grackle, Australian Oriole, Green Thrush, Striated Roller and more. Oriolus sagittatus: oriolus = golden (?), and sagittatus = arrow (for the arrow-like streaks) hence another old name – ‘Arrowed Golden Bird’.

Olive-backed Orioles build a cup/basket-shaped nest of bark which they suspend by the rim from a thin fork in the outer foliage.

Garden Mantis

The Garden Mantis, or more correctly, False Garden Mantis, Pseudomantis albofimbriata, is a member of the mantis family of which there are over 2,000 species worldwide. They have triangular-shaped heads, long bodies and extra-long forelegs often held in a ‘praying’ position – hence the Praying Mantis.

Pseudomantis albofimbriata can be either brown or green. They use their long forelegs to capture their prey – flies, bees, moths, butterflies, etc., which they locate with their excellent eyesight and flexible head.

Mantises themselves are preyed upon by birds, lizards, frogs, large spiders, etc. – it’s a jungle out there! There are some wonderful videos explaining mantis behaviour – ‘Kung Fu Mantis vs Jumping Spider’, BBC Earth. Wikipedia has an excellent mantis page that explains their etymology, anatomy, reproductive behaviour, sexual cannibalism, mythology and much more.

This individual was present on a hakea shrub in our garden recently.

 

Bee-fly (#2)

A couple of years back I posted about a bee-fly I came across at the Bunyip Sanctuary.

This is another bee-fly species – Villa genus, perhaps Villa cingulata – that appeared in my back garden a month or two ago.

There are over 5000 species of bee-flies, Bombliidae family, worldwide. Australia has around 100 described species but many more exist. Various references state there are about 270 Villa species, found on all continents except Antarctica.

Villa cingulata often rests on the ground as this one was doing, letting me click away. Unlike the bee-fly in the earlier post, this one has a short proboscis which it can tuck away when at rest.

Villa genus is a brood parasite of wasps and solitary bees. Before distributing her eggs, the female Villa coats them with sand she has collected in a dedicated chamber in her abdomen to make them more aerodynamic. She then hovers just above the unsuspecting host’s nest and flicks her eggs within the vicinity of the entrance (colloquially, she is called a ‘bomber fly’). The host wasp or bee inadvertently carries the Villa eggs into her nest and ultimately rears the Villa larvae.

Despite their ‘parasitic’ lifestyle, bee-flies are efficient pollinators, particularly of native plants. They may look like bees, perhaps to deter predation, but they are harmless to humans.

Welcome in my garden!

Australian Swamp Rat

When conducting their regular bird surveys, the Friends of Drouin’s Trees surveyors will sometimes encounter a Swamp Rat, or more correctly, Australian Swamp Rat. Rattus lutreolus, is an endemic rodent that inhabits dense vegetation, usually alongside water courses, swamps and lakes down the eastern seaboard and in Tasmania.

Swamp Rat - Amberly Bush Reserve Drouin

The Swamp Rat is largely vegetarian and is often active during the day.

Swamp Rat - Thomas Maddock Reserve Drouin

Sometimes referred to as ‘ecosystem engineers’, the Swamp Rat forms tunnels through the thick vegetation and often scratches ‘runways’ in the ground below their cover.

Rodent 'runways' - Amberly Bush Reserve Drouin

Cats, dogs, altered drainage patterns, bushfire, anticoagulant rodenticides, and competition with invasive species are the principal threats facing this wonderful little animal.

Swamp Rat - Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin

Swamp Rats and their close cousins, Bush Rats, are native Australian mammals that have evolved on this continent over millions of years. They seldom invade human habitation and are not disease vectors like the introduced pests - Black Rat and Brown Rat. It is generally accepted that Black Rats and Brown Rats arrived as recently as 1787 with the First Fleet.

Black (or Brown?) Rat - Thomas Maddock Reserve Drouin

Swamp Rats grow to about 16-20cm (Black and Brown Rats are larger). Swamp Rats have small ears that if folded forward, would not reach their eyes (Black and Brown Rats have obvious large ears).  Swamp Rat tails are shorter than their body (Black and Brown Rats have tails equal or longer than their body). Swamp Rats are often diurnal (Black and Brown Rats are mostly nocturnal).

 Native and introduced rats: some quick and dirty facts (Museums Victoria)

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Apart from the obvious black face of the mature adult, one of the best identifiers of the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is its trilling, churring call often repeated several times. Another is the way it folds its wings on landing, which is the reason for its alternative common name: Shufflewing.

The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Coracina novaehollandiae (Coracina = little raven, and novaehollandiae = New Holland, an old name for Australia) is an endemic bird that is fairly common in this district, especially in summer (some references call it the ‘summer bird’). It is mostly described as nomadic-migratory.

There is some evidence that the same birds return to the same territory each season. The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike inhabits open woodlands and ‘fringe’ habitats, generally avoiding ‘closed’ forests and rainforests.

Larger insects and their larvae are a favourite food, and BFCs often seem to arrive on cue when there is an outbreak of farmland pest insects. They fly with long undulations – a bit like the Grey Shrike-thrush – and often perch on an exposed limb to survey their territory for evidence of their next meal.

Masked Lapwing

These days, Masked Lapwings are often seen in urban spaces such as parks, ovals, even home gardens at times. They are a bird that is at ease with being in open spaces. In fact, as many people will testify, they even lay their eggs in very exposed spots: nature strips, railway yards, sports grounds, rooftops, etc. Although adapted to urban living, Masked Lapwings natural surroundings usually include coastlines, grasslands and wetlands.

At Thomas Maddock Reserve Drouin - recent bird survey

The ‘old’ common name, Spur-winged Plover, is derived from the fact the bird has a spur on the ‘elbow’ of its wing. The spur is normally hidden under some feathers and is used to deter invaders of its territory. Especially when nesting, Masked Lapwings will swoop cats, dogs, other birds, people, etc, if the nest or the babies are approached too closely. Despite some urban myths, the spur is not venomous. The parent bird will sometimes employ the ‘broken wing’ method of drawing people away from their nest site too.

At nest - spur clearly showing (credit: Australian Museum)

The ‘mask’ refers to the look given by the yellow wattles and lappets on the face.

Lapwings and plovers are two separate but closely related families. Also, there are several species and races of lapwings. ‘Our’ Masked Lapwing should perhaps more correctly be called the Black-shouldered Lapwing. The scientific epithet for Masked Lapwing is Vanellus miles. ‘Vanellus’ = lapwing (a diminutive of vannus = winnowing/fan – the sound of the wings flapping in flight) and ‘miles’ = soldier (upright stance, attack…?).

At Cranbourne Botanic Gardens with babies

Masked Lapwings feed on insects and their larvae, and worms. Their call is a rapid and loud ‘kekekekekekek…’, often heard after dark.